Green Park Station
Green Park tube station is a London Underground station located on the north side of Green Park, close to the intersection of Piccadilly and the pedestrian Queen's Walk. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The station is served by the Piccadilly Line (between Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park Corner), the Victoria Line (between Victoria and Oxford Circus), and the Jubilee Line (between Bond Street and Westminster). History and Structure The station was opened on 15 December 1906 by the Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), the precursor of the Piccadilly Line. The station was originally named Dover Street due to its location at the corner of that street and Piccadilly. When the station was rebuilt in 1933 with escalator access to the platforms, a new sub-surface ticket hall was built to the west under the roadway and new station entrances were constructed on the corner of Piccadilly and Stratton Street and on the south side of Piccadilly. The station name was changed at this time. With the rebuilding of the station and similar works at Hyde Park Corner, the little-used Piccadilly Line station between the two at Down Street was taken out of use. The Victoria Line platforms opened on 7 March 1969; interchange between that line and the Piccadilly line was via the ticket hall (without having to pass through the exit barriers). The Jubilee Line platforms opened on 1 May 1979, at which time the next station south on the Jubilee Line was its then southern terminus, Charing Cross; those platforms were closed when the Jubilee line was extended on a new alignment towards Westminster; at the same time interchange facilities at Green Park were improved. When travelling south from Green Park on the Jubilee Line, Green Park Junction, where the new line diverges from the old, is visible from the train. While the old line is effectively abandoned it is still in working order although there are no longer any scheduled "rusty rail" train movements to Charing Cross. On the 9 October 1975, terrorists belonging to the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb outside Green Park tube station, killing a 23-year old Graham Ronald Tuck. Similar attacks during The Troubles resulted in deaths at West Ham Station in 1976 and Victoria Station in 1991. In Popular Culture The opening scene of the 1997 film version of Henry James's The Wings of the Dove was set on the east-bound platforms at both Dover Street and Knightsbridge stations, both represented by the same studio mock-up, complete with a working recreation of a 1906 Stock train. Modern Trivia In a London based "MasterMind" style competition sponsored by The Evening Standard, Sunderland born James Hepple won with his specialist subject on Green Park tube station. The competition was held on stage in Ku Club in Londons Leicester Square on the 23rd August 2008. The competition followed the same format as the TV show with three other competitors and their specialist subject: Duncan Bain on Safari Parks in the UK (second 28 points); Gerrad Jackson on the television program The Bill (third 27 points); and Michael Buckingham on Runners World Monthly(9 points). The competition was fiercely fought however James Hepple achieved a massive score of 23 on his specialist subject Green Park. The prize for the winner was reflective of their specialist subject. Duncan Bain could have won a job as a safari park attendant for day; Michael Buckingham could have won a lifetime subscription to Runners World; Gerard Jackson could have won a chance to be an extra as a policeman on The Bill. The winner James Hepple won a guided tour around Green Park Tube station and also will have two plaques with his name erected on both Victoria Line platforms. The TfL page is https://tfl.gov.uk/tube/stop/940GZZLUGPK/green-park-underground-station/ Category:London Underground Category:Stations Category:City of Westminster